The founder of the National Speakers Association (www.nsaspeaker.org) Cavett Robert once defined character as, "the ability to carry out a worthwhile resolution long after the mood in which it was made has left you."

We have recently experienced some good weather here in the UK and inevitably folks have been turning their minds away from business towards a summer break.  Those of us who run our own businesses are left with a few short weeks to sort out our revenue projections for summer before either taking a break ourselves, or (more than likely if you run a small business) watching your corporate friends head for the beaches and mountains. 

So what of the summer months?  What can we usefully do?

We can improve ourselves, that's what.

In this month's edition of 'Professional Speaker' (the official magazine of the NSA) you'll find a really thought provoking and interesting article by Don Huston (Don@DonHuston.com).  Don comments that, “our success is primarily the result of what we plan, expect of ourselves and skilfully execute.  You can forget winning the lottery, since that is a long shot unworthy of your worry.”

How true: yet how many people do I see wasting their time and money buying lottery coupons?  Too many.  Too many because at its simplest level life is only a combination of resources: physical, mental and spiritual, and our two most important physical resources, beyond our health and fitness are: time and money.

So why waste them?

The warmth of the summer months and the long daylight hours of the northern latitudes act as a balm for the soul, so let’s use the extra energy that gives us to work on our motivation.  Thoreau (1817-1862) defined motivation as, “The pull of anticipation and the push of discipline.”
The sun is out; can you go and play outside now?  Sure, have a think about what goals you want to achieve and then when you come back inside: 

• Write them down

In Don’s article, ‘Capturing the inspiration of a fresh start’ he references research that indicates “you will triple your commitment to your goals and the probability of successful achievement just by writing them down.  If you go… further and assign a specific timeframe to each goal you will quintuple your commitment and probability of achievement.”

Go figure.

The sun truly is shining.